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4/13/11

Ride In 4/13

They say that virtue is its own reward. There's nothing virtuous about commuting by bike in the rain.
It was the kind of rain today that only seemed bad when you move forward into it. When I was stopped at lights, it barely felt like it was coming down at all. Only when I was pedaling did it seem like I was riding into a Hokusai painting.
It always seems like there is more car traffic on rainy days. Do people really eschew walking or public transportation to drive on days like this? I can understand not biking (though I don't think that it's fair weather bike commuters that make up the added volume), but there's a thing called an umbrella, so waiting for the bus shouldn't be that much more onerous than usual. Maybe it's just my perception. I'm something of a crank, so you might not want to trust me.
Way more cyclists out then I expected, especially in the District. Good for us. I think that once "bike commuting" becomes synonymous with "commuting," you start giving very little thought to taking another mode of transportation. That might be bullshit and I'm sure that the CaBi numbers don't back up that claim at all. But, there will always be a non-zero number of bike commuters and that seems heartening. I'm chanting NON-ZERO, NON-ZERO at my desk like one would U-S-A at an Olympic hockey game. Plus, bike commuting will always be relatively cheaper if gas prices and public transportation fare increases continue (I'm assuming) to outpace inflation. And you get qualitatively better at it the more you do it, so it starts to seem like less a "cost" on your time and effort. There's also the whole sunk cost thing of buying a bicycle instead of having to continually buy gas or metro fares. I'm sure there's some more economics-y way of explaining these ideas, but I've gone as far as I can go with it.
So much road spit. My bike was gross again, but I wiped it down when I got to work. I'm paranoid about the frame rusting, so I try to be diligent. It was nice and calming. Like brushing a horse. Not that I've ever brushed a horse.